Today at Live Action, I have a response to recent comments by Gloria Steinem at a Planned Parenthood fundraiser, the first of which was:

“Why is it that the same people who are against birth control and abortion are also against sex between two women or two men?” Steinem asked her audience, reports the Memphis Flyer. She continued that those people “are against any sex that cannot end in reproduction.”

Unfortunately, an editorial judgment was made to cut out part of my response, so I am presenting an expanded version of the rest here, where hopefully it will help equip pro-lifers to deal with this line of pro-abortion attack.

How does this strawman complaint fail? Let us count the ways. First, plenty of people—and not just pro-lifers—have acknowledged that antipathy toward abortion doesn’t automatically correlate with views commonly maligned as “anti-gay,” as evidenced by polling that indicates public opinion simultaneously becoming more accepting of homosexuality and same-sex marriage yet unchanged or less accepting of abortion.

Gee, it’s almost as if abortion and same-sex marriage are two different issues with distinct pros and cons that can be evaluated separately! Yes, most pro-lifers are also conservatives and/or Christians, but there are plenty of other pro-lifers all over the religious or ideological spectrums. There are even pro-lifers who are gay themselves, so good luck trying to use this argument on them, Gloria.

Second, it is true that conservatives (religious and secular alike) tend to oppose both abortion and the redefinition of marriage. For some people that’s may be because the Bible frowns on both; but for the most part it’s because both violate the Founding principles which conservatism exists to conserve: the right to life, and marriage’s function as a societal building block.

But by framing it as being “against sex between two women or two men,” Steinem gives the slanderous impression that we would take control of their private lives and punish them for what they do in their bedrooms, which couldn’t be further from the truth. There is no real movement in the United States to criminalize gay sex, relationships, cohabitation, etc. The only real gay debates going on today are civil recognition of same-sex marriage, which is entirely separate from the question of tangible benefits, and Steinem’s allies attempting to force private citizens—under penalty of law—to participate in ceremonies that violate their convictions.

Finally, endlessly repeating the clichéd “controlling sex is pro-lifers’ secret ulterior motive” conspiracy theory won’t change the fact that our stated reason for opposing abortion—it kills innocent people—is scientifically, objectively, irrefutably, obviously true. Anybody claiming not to understand that recoiling at violence against children is one of the average person’s most basic human intuitions—which anyone who dismisses this obvious motivation to oppose abortion is doing—is lying.

These days, there seems to be an increasingly-vocal minority of pro-lifers who don’t recognize that the abortion lobby and the radical gay lobby are two factions of a common agenda. But while their friendship and support in protecting the preborn is valuable, all pro-lifers should be able to see through Steinem’s attempt to smear our movement with these falsehoods.

The intense disgust Donald Trump inspires in most conservatives is unquestionably valid, seeing that he’s a loathsome, unqualified buffoon who ruined the best chance we’ve had since 1984 to put a truly worthy movement conservative, Ted Cruz, in the White House. The emotional difficulty of looking past his offenses and weaknesses is understandable, and there are legitimate concerns about Trump’s fitness for office, chances against Hillary Clinton, and representation of the Republican Party.

However, it’s increasingly apparent that Trump Derangement Syndrome has so consumed most of the #NeverTrump movement that they’ve lost the ability to objectively evaluate both Trump’s weaknesses and the consequences of another Clinton presidency. Not only are opposing arguments ignored without serious consideration, many NeverTrumpers hurl indignation and condescension at any suggestion there are opposing arguments. Ugly though it sounds, it’s hard not to conclude that some have decided that the future of their country is less important than projecting their self-image as morally and ideologically purer than the rest of us.

It’s time to start calling out this arrogant negligence. The following is the first in a series of posts calling out the shoddy logic and irresponsible flippancy dominating #NeverTrump arguments. To be clear, not everyone we’ll discuss is guilty of all the sins described above, but all display a distinct lack of seriousness unworthy of the future generations who will suffer if they get their way and Hillary wins. Continue reading →

As if we needed any more proof that liberals were pathetic sheep incapable of independent thought and unworthy of respect, just look at how quickly this transgender bathroom insanity became conventional wisdom on the Left that

The values of PayPal, Bruce Springsteen, and the fanatics, imbeciles, and scum that applaud them now include forcing women and girls to put up with men in their restrooms.

Never mind the entirely predictable result of straight male perverts exploiting the “enlightened” policy to try to snap pictures of women undressing.

No lightbulbs going off as to why these LGBT “heroes” can take this stand to boycott American states for requiring men to stick to male restrooms but have no problem doing business in countries where being anything other than hetero-normative is grounds for imprisonment and death.

Not a hint of self-awareness or shame about taking this as a grievous moral wrong while cheerfully supporting one of two presidential candidates who support the legal power to have your baby stabbed in the neck just months before he or she would have been born for the sake of convenience.

And yet these simpletons will still see no irony or hypocrisy in prattling on about how conservatives and Republicans are supposedly the ones perpetrating a “war on women.”

The Left is not a collection of equally rational, equally well-meaning people who have simply come to different conclusions about what’s best for the country. At best, these people are mentally unwell; at worst they are terrible people. If this swill of hypocrisy and moral blindness isn’t enough to finally wake the GOP up to the fact that they can’t reason with these people, nothing will be.

From Tennessee comes the sickening story of a 31-year-old woman, Anna Yocca, who faces attempted murder charges for trying to abort her 23-week-old preborn child with a coat hanger. The baby survived – due solely to fears for her own health that led her to go to an emergency room – but he sustained lung, eye, and heart damage that will require medical support for the rest of his life, plus additional health problems that will arise as he grows up.

A mother’s selfish attempt to crudely kill her own son directly caused an innocent child to suffer grievous injuries that will plague him for the rest of his life. We don’t know exactly how debilitating his conditions will be, but at the very least pain and limitations will loom over a childhood that should have been filled with love, laughter, learning, and playing, thanks to the very person who was supposed to comfort and protect him.

So who does the abortion cult have sympathy for? The perpetrator, of course.

The views expressed on Conservative Standards are strictly my own, and do not necessarily reflect those of any other organizations or publications where I have been employed and/or my work has been featured, nor do they necessarily reflect the views of any individuals employed by or otherwise affiliated with such groups.